Age of Heroes
Religion *Society *Culture Groups *Economics *Technology *Education - Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric), Quadrivium (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy) *Warfare Time Frame It is well known that Rome dominated the Mediterranean region from around 200 B.C.E. until its conquest in 476. What is not so well known is that around the time the Empire stopped expanding (ca. 200), many of the regions bordering it entered what are known as heroic ages. The Irish Ulster cycle, centering around Conchobar, traditionally took place during the first century. At the same time, a wave of Germanic tribes invaded Europe from the east and in the process initiated their own heroic age - Beowulf, Hrolf Kraki, and Sigurd all had cycles focusing around them. By 410, Rome itself had been sacked. The next few decades saw the Roman Empire deteriorate until Rome itself was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 476. This led to a British heroic age, of which Arthur was the center. Whereas the Irish heroic age seems to have lasted roughly a generation, the Germanic went into the sixth century - we know that both Beowulf and Hrolf Kraki date to that period - and only came to a close with the development of stable kingships. The British age lasted into the seventh century, when their kingdoms’ boundaries and dynasties stabilized. Significant Traits This period is known as an heroic age. It marked the end of an era that had been noteworthy for centuries of stable trade, government, roads, currency, and culture. It came with a few hundred years of famines, plagues, raiding, and conquests. At the center of these ages were simple chieftains, many of whom are still remembered. None of these individuals probably controlled any more than a few hundred square miles, but they did inspire their peers with their accomplishments while their professional historians, bards and skops told stories about them. Christianity had become the state religion during the Roman period, but would become entrenched during the Age of Heroes as it rapidly spread through the British Isles and among the Germanic peoples. By the late seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of Europe. Major Events In around 367, the Roman Empire started bringing Germanic tribes over to Britain to act as foederati, an auxiliary military force to combat piracy and raiding on the island. The agreement involved the Empire giving gathered food and supplies from the province to the them in exchange for their services. In 409 the last Roman general in Britain, Constantine, took the title of emperor and invaded the continent. As part of his promotion the Roman government there was overthrown and replaced by his own officials. When he died in 411, the government was again overthrown. This led to a fracturing of the former province. A reduction of food and supplies to foederati throughout the Empire, which led to the sacking of Rome in 410. This weakened the prestige of the Roman Empire forever and breaking the psychological hold of the empire over the Germanic tribes as an immortal and all-powerful artifice. In the middle of the fifth century, possibly 441, local efforts to maintain a supply of food and supplies to the foederati failed. This led to a Germanic revolt after which their clans established control over individual villages along the eastern coast and claimed the needed materials as a tribute. In 451, Attila lost the Battle of Chalons-sur-Marne, and he died two years later. Attila had united most of the Germanic tribes under his banner. His death dispersed them again and initiated an era known as the heroic age in which famous people like Hrolf Kraki, Beowulf, Arthur, Sigurd, and Theodoric would thrive. In 476 the city of Rome fell to the Ostrogoths. The Empire's western holdings were quickly taken up by various tribes. Several had already occupied Britain, while the Visigoths took Spain, the Ostrogoths settled in the rest of Italy, the Lombards and Franks were the main tribes in France, and so forth. In the late fifth century the first British kingdoms would emerge from what had been Roman Britain. These were localized responses to continued expansion by the Germanic tribes. The re-establishment of British kingdoms would give the British a decided advantage until the mid-sixth century, when the Germanic peoples would develop their own kingships. Their access to better farmland meant they could feed more warriors with the same amount of land and put larger armies on the field of any battle. The next few centuries would see the consolidation of Frankia, Spain, and Portugal though dozens of kingdoms continued to exist in Italy, Germany, and Britain until well after about 650, when the Age of Heroes ended. Religion There were four primary religions and several cult followings in post-Roman Britain - an underground Mother Earth religion, traditional Celtic, Christianity, the religion of the Germanic peoples, and following of Mithras and Belatacudros. Mother Earth We know very little about this religion, which was likely practiced well away from settlements. It seems to have been a natural development of the Great Goddess religion, taking into account a knowledge of the male element in reproduction and intolerance of both the new religion and the more traditional beliefs of the Celts. At the center of the religion was the replenishing quality of the planet, both in its flora and fauna. Worship groups appear to have been formed into covens of witches. At holidays, definitely the spring equinox but possibly during other times during the year, a simple ritual was performed. A male was ritually sacrificed and placed into a cauldron. He re-emerged as a young male. The ritual was deeply symbolic. The choice of male was because of the reproductive nature of the phallus as opposed to the consistent fertility of women. The young male represented the new year, spring, a time of new life. It was believed that our planet was like a person, growing old over the course of a year until it had to be sacrificed in order to make way for the new. We have no name to associate with the female element in these rituals, so that it is possible that there was none. The male seems to have varied by region - we know of Belatacudros and Cernunnos, the latter of which was associated with crows and ravens and shown with a stag’s horns. These were the updated versions of the Young and Dying God of the oldest agricultural civilizations. Over the course of the Middle Ages, practitioners of this religion would become known as witches, to be hunted down and murdered. Their chief holidays were the winter and summer solstice and the spring and autumn equinox, just like the people of the ice age. Celtic The historical invasions were a part of Celtic mythology. It was believed that the giants of myth were descendants of an earlier race known as the Fomorians while the fairies represented another. The former group were active in this world and perceived as representations of the destructive force of nature - like the Jotuns of Norse mythology or the Titans for the Greeks. And like them, the Fomorians had probably been nature-worshipping people. The latter group were said to live in an Otherworld. The Fomorians combatted with the Celts' gods, the Tuatha de Danaan, so that the Irish were aware of them but did not have to worry about them in their daily lives. Fairies were more problematic, but they did not actively seek out humans. On their festival days they would emerge from their sidh to celebrate. If a person happened upon them, the fairies would invite them to their home, where there were boundless wonders and no one ever aged. Technology, beauty, and wealth were believed to be the treasures of the fairies. The catch was that when a mortal went with the fairies he could never return. A day there might be a century in the real world, so that anyone trying to return would turn to dust. Just because the gods were not active in mortals’ lives didn’t mean they weren’t aware, and didn’t need to be respected. We know of regular sacrifices to the gods via drowning, immolation, hanging, and beheading. We do not know the occasion, or even to which god(s) they were sacrificed too, though. We have no way of knowing if they sacrificed captured warriors during internecine conflicts, but they did impale the heads of Roman soldiers during the Boudiccan Revolt. Votive offerings of warrior armaments were also common. Also, the occasional articles of jewelry, bowls, torques, and coins have been found mainly in rivers, lakes, and bogs. It is feasible that water gods may have been associated with warfare, but this would not explain the other objects. The simple fact that objects can disappear and therefore provide the illusion of having been taken might have been the Celts’ reason to use water for sacrifices. Bodies of water might have been used for all gods. There was one aspect of everyday life that did revolve around the supernatural, and that was Celtic kingship. In a continuation of pre-Celtic thinking, the land was considered to be a living entity. When a king assumed the throne, part of the coronation ceremony involved his symbolic marriage to the land, in the form of a woman. For the Celts, the marriage meant the same sort of relationship to be found in most ancient cultures, that the land gave up its independence to her new lord. However, Celtic lands were accorded some power. Legend had it that if a king proved himself unworthy through cowardice, poor legal judgments, or by losing any portion of his body the land would grow barren. Symbolically, this meant that his wife would turn into an old hag. She would only regain her former beauty when the old king had been sacrificed and thrown into a bog and she was married to the man of her choice. The Druids seem to have been a unique entity in Celtic affairs, credited as lawyers, teachers, and magicians. We know they were exempt from military and political responsibilities. They acted as priests during ceremonies and were believed to possess supernatural knowledge not unlike a shaman. Apart from this, we know very little about them apart from Roman and Christian propaganda. Roman records indicate there was a campaign to wipe them out during the Roman occupation, even though there is no suggestion that the druids were responsible for any revolt. This suggests there was something about them their inherent beliefs or actions that threatened rule. Apart from that, we know only that they were associated with the oak tree and mistletoe. The Celtic peoples held that the head was not only the center of a person's intelligence but also its emotions and soul. As such it was popular in art; stone heads dot the modern landscapes of Britain and Ireland. In warfare, the head held a deeply symbolic meaning. Worthy opponents were often beheaded after death, the skulls collected in trunks or stone trophy cases and shown to visitors. The dead among them would be put on stakes and used as protection of the camp or fortress. Cedar oil was used as a preservative. Instead it was believed that a soul would find a body most suited to it, so a good warrior would find his way to a warrior's family while a farmer would find his way back to the land. The belief in transmigration was so strong among the ancient Celts that they were occasionally known to makes bets and take loans that would be paid in the next life. Holidays Holidays among the Britons often involved feasting and drinking. Common alcohols included honey-wine known as ‘’bragawt’’ as well as elderberry and rhubarb wine which were sometimes flavored with woodruff. Holidays began and ended at dusk *Alban Eilir: March 20 to 21, spring equinox. *Alban Elfed: September 22 and 23, fall equinox. *Calan Gaeaf: October 31 to November 1, it marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark half of the year, when livestock was brought back from their summer grazing and the slaughtered were chosen. As such it was believed to be a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the otherworld was weakened. It was common custom to leave food outside of doorways or invite them in. Special bonfires were believed to have protective and cleansing powers. People would go door to door in costumes imitating fairies and reciting verses or entire plays, guising and mumming, in exchange for food. Horse racing was common among the nobility. In Ireland, it was custom that every third year nobles and the best bards would get together and create new laws. *Calan Haf: Occurs beginning on the evening of April 30 and lasts till the following dusk and was also considered a liminal time, when livestock was sent into the fields for the summer. The main celebration was when a man symbolizing winter dressed up with a blackthorn stick and a shield with cotton stuck to it, then mock battled with another man symbolizing summer and dressed in garlands, ribbons, and carrying a willow-wand. When Summer won, a king and queen were elected. Groups of people traveled from house to house accompanied by a fiddler or harpist and sang bawdy songs in return for food, drink, and sometimes money. *Eisteddfod: A celebration of literature, music, and performance. Christianity The new faith came to Britain in the first century. As with the rest of the Roman Empire, believers spread their faith as fast as possible. Enjoying periods of alternative popularity and official , there are indications of Christians temples as well as the chi-rho symbols of people well before the fifth century. Public crosses, standing up to 25 feet high, were decorated with scenes from the Bible, making it possible to illustrate stories to an audience that didn’t need to read. The spread of Christianity continued well into the post-Roman period, with “saints” like David, Columba, Dubricius, and Samson coming into contact with and making the attempt to convert them. The Christianity of Britain and Ireland was organized differently than on the continent. In France, Italy, Spain, and elsewhere priests guided local flocks, bishops were assigned to metropolises, and the primary bishops were in Rome, Antioch, Constantinople, and the other major cities of the Mediterranean region. As the offices grew higher, the social and political influences grew as well. In this setting, abbots served merely as the keepers of ancient knowledge and as the leaders of monasteries. Abbots in Britain and Ireland possessed the political and social influence. Patrick, Gildas, Dubricius, Cadoc, and Illtud were some of the best educated and most sought after people of their generations. They taught generation after generation of princes and highly intelligent peasants. By contrast, bishops were in charge of administration. That Christianity could have developed so differently was a result of the political situation in Britain beginning in the fifth century. With the breakdown in Roman government beginning in around 410, the Germanic sea raiders that had preyed on Roman shipping for decades came to dominate the English Channel. This did not altogether stop trade and communications to and from the continent, but it did allow the Britons and with them the Irish to ignore whatever alterations were made to the Christian faith and to organize the religion in whatever manner they chose. The personal magnetism of leaders like Patrick and Cadoc largely led to the latter, while ignoring the synods of the fifth century on also allowed the Celts to retain some of their more ancient and less acceptable practices. There were four basic differences. * Tonsure: The shaving of one's head so that the remaining hair looks like a halo came into style on the continent, but was not picked up until after the Council of Whitby. * Easter: The Celts all used a modified form of St. Jerome's method, called Celtic-84 after the number of years in each cycle. A slightly different way of calculating the holiday was proposed by Victorius of Aquitaine and later Dionysius Exiguus but was not immediately known by the British, Picts, and Irish. They were made aware of it in 602 and had all conformed by 716. * Penance: The prevailing continental custom was that confession was made publicly. On the British Isles it was done privately with a priest. * Peregrinatio: What had been meant as living a life separated from the material world while waiting for the afterlife became, among the Irish and British, an act of physically moving. It was common for churchmen to move from their homes, often leaving the island of their birth. Monasteries were considered a more extreme way to being closer to God. For that reason, the portions of alcohol and meat a monk was allowed to have during the course of a day was spelled out in the basic laws, or rules, of each monastery. Some, following David and Uinniau of Moville, kept to a diet of strictly water and bread except under unusual circumstances, whereas the rules of most were more relaxed. In general, the diet of a typical monk was probably the healthiest of any person in the Middle Ages. Food was not the only aspect of the Rule. The amount of time spent growing crops, the tools allowed in working the ground, and the amount of outside help (slaves or freeman) that a monastery accepted were all laid out. Monasteries were also a means of screening the monks from the outside world. This was not always possible, however, as the medieval Celtic monastery was a teaching establishment. Hermits were fairly common as a more isolationist approach to monasticism. As Roman government and secular Roman teachers disappeared in Britain, monasteries began to take up the slack. They welcomed the exceptionally intelligent from the lower classes as potential ecclesiastics and accepted princes from royal families and the wealthy as a means of balancing costs and helping the monastery. It was not uncommon for the most prominent intellects to travel between monasteries to discuss the ideas of the day, or to carry on correspondence. Depending on the Rule of the monastery, a monk might be expected to spend a good portion of his time copying the manuscripts of passed thinkers. For a monk this could be a means of expanding the monastery library, but it was also a way for the monk to learn. Requesting a specific manuscript from another monastery invited learning and discussion. It also led to the preservation of many manuscripts that would otherwise have been lost during the Middle Ages. Of course this also meant that reads that interested monks had a better chance of survival than those that did not. Olympiodorus' histories contain many valuable insights into the ancient world that are gone forever, whereas Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful history of Britain has more extant copies than any other medieval work outside of the Bible. Because of their diet, relative isolation, and the general cleanliness of the monastery, religious people were some of the healthiest of the period. Whereas it was rare for a layman to live into their fifties, many religious people may have lived beyond 80. One of the most prevalent beliefs of the Middle Ages was in Lilith, the first wife of Adam who had refused to be obedient to him and instead escaped from him. The archetypal bad woman, she was believed to seduce men in order to produce demons and to kill human children. Hebrew myth commonly labeled her a beast or demon herself. Holidays *All Saints’ Day: May 13, practiced sporadically until the seventh century, it was a day set aside for all saints, known and unknown. *Ash Wednesday: The first day of Lent, was meant to commemorate the forty days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted by Satan. Ashes were spread on churchgoers. *Candlemas: February 2, Mary’s purification and Christ’s entry into the temple. *Christmas: December 25, celebrated as the birth day of Christ. It was overshadowed by Epiphany, at which the three magi announced Christ's significance. The date roughly coincided with the Winter Solstice, and for that reason held its own significance. *Easter: The day Jesus rose from the grave. Churchgoers would watch the first rays of sunlight and have the priest lead them into church as they sang hymns. If a person could afford it they wore new clothes, often their only new clothes all year. After service, there would be an egg hunt. No one was allowed to work on Easter. Often a servant would give the lord a small gift or a newborn animal in exchange for a feast. * Epiphany: January 6, the visit of the three magi, it occurred on the last day of Christmas. * Festival of Fire: April 30th, midway point between spring solstice and summer equinox. Cattle were sent out to their summer pastures. Bonfires, called Beltane, were either circled by both people and their cattle, walked between, or leapt over flames. Household fires were extinguished and re-lit from bonfires. Doors, windows, byres and cattle were decorated with yellow May flowers symbolizing the fire. * Good Friday: The day Jesus was put on the cross. No nails or iron instruments were allowed on this day. *Hock Monday: Unmarried women would capture unmarried men and ransom them with a donation to the church. * Hock Tuesday: Unmarried men would capture unmarried women and ransom them with a donation to the church. * Holy Wednesday: The day Jesus went to the house of Simon the Leper and was anointed by a woman. This made several of the disciples indignant and Judas Iscariot made a deal with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus. *Lent: The forty days prior to Easter were spent in hard fasting and abstinence. Eggs and meat were allowed during this time. Eggs laid then were hard boiled and eaten on Easter. *Maundy Thursday: The day Jesus was betrayed by Judas. *May Day: May 1st, associated with fertility (livestock, crops, and people) because planting was finished by this time. Celebrated with young women with ribbons dancing around a maypole, the selection of a May Queen, and Morris dancing. *Michaelmas: September 29, the celebration of Michael's victory over Satan. A reeve would be elected to tally the harvest for the lord. Aas one of the quarter days rent was due; all debts had to be settled on the following quarter day. A typical meal was goose and a special cake called a Struan Cake, a St. Michael's Bannock, or a Michaelmas Bannock. Nuts were traditionally cracked on this day, while blackberries couldn't be eaten after Michaelmas because Lucifer had cursed them. *Midsummer Eve: June 24, summer solstice and John the Baptist's birthday. Feasting and merrymaking were common and could last long into the night. Golden flowers like the Calendula and St. John's Wort were believed to have healing powers when picked at midsummer. Bonfires were lit to protect against the free-roaming spirits believed to emerge when the sun turned south. As one of the quarter days when rent was due. All debts had to be settled on the following quarter day. *Palm Sunday: The day Jesus entered Jerusalem. It is customary to have a blessing of palm or some other leaves, often outside the church. *St. Crispin’s Day: October 25, honoring the martyrdom of the twins St. Crispin and St. Crispinian in 286. They had been caught preaching in France, and by decree the pagan emperor Diocletian sentenced them to death. Crispin and Crispinian were the patron saints of cobblers, tanners, and leather workers. *St. John’s Day: September 13, tradition says he died on September 14, 404 A.D. A legendary student of Libanius, when called to Christianity he gave it the same devotion, spending two years sleeping little, mostly standing, and memorizing the Bible. He took his ascetic work to such an excess that he damaged his stomach and kidneys in the process. The Britons believed he travelled to Wales where he spread his knowledge of culture. Germanic When the Germanic tribes invaded northern Europe during the Roman Empire they successfully meshed their gods with the natives creating a religion with two families of gods, one focused on protecting humans from the jotuns (Aesir) and a second more interested in culture (Vanir). This was further diversified by tribal gods. Among those who migrated to Britain, these deities had slightly different names but performed largely the same functions. Woden was the king of the gods. His crows were said to watch Jotunheim for any activity leading up to Ragnarok. He was often named as the father of a dynasty. Thunor or Donar, god of thunder, was known to go on raids in Jotunheim to keep the enemy off balance - he was listed as the normal dynastic head. Tiw represented honor, as he sacrificed his right hand in recompense for binding the Fenris Wolf. Baeldaeg‘s original identity is unknown, but once the Germanic peoples were Christianization he became a Christ-figure. He normally follows Woden in the genealogies. Seaxnot was the tribal god of the Saxons, his name translates as “Helper of the Saxons”. Among the less important gods, the trio of women known as Norns were the Germanic equivalent of the fates; their festival day was December 25, considered the end of the year as their winter solstice. Hretha translates as glory. Eostre was a spring goddess, as attested by numerous votive offerings and Bede. Germanic kingship had an association beyond the gods, however. Like the Celts, the Germanic peoples also believed that royal families had a form of divine luck, which they called mana. It was thought that royal families had been given good fortune in the land’s fertility, raids, trading, and rule. When a king died, the man believed to have the clan’s strongest mana was elected the new king, probably by popular assembly. Holidays *Alfablót: Took place during the first three days of winter. The holiday was marked by sacrifices both public and private as a thank you to the gods for their harvest held at the homestead for local spirits. The holiday was specifically for women and conducted by priestesses. *Lammas: Loaf Day is held on the Sunday nearest the autumnal equinox, which is the full moon closest to September 23rd. It features crops. The village square i decorated with fruit and foods, while the local lord was traditionally given a loaf of bread made from the newly harvested wheat. It i also known as harvest end. *Litha: Litha was the Midsummer Eve celebrated with outdoor bonfires, dancing, and feasting. *Ostara: Ostara was also know as Eostre, goddess of the dawn and was associated with fertility and the spring. Eostre was a month covering part of March and April. The rabbit was closely connected to her, as were eggs. *Yule: Began at sunset on December 20 and ended on January 1st. Celebration of the winter solstice. It was uniquely associated with Odin/Woden. Celebrated with the burning of a Yule log, a leftover of the previous year. If possible, it was scented with bayberry, blessed thistle, evergreen, frankincense holly, laurel, mistletoe, oak, pine, sage, yellow cedar. An enclosure was decorated with evergreen boughs or wreaths, holly, mistletoe, baskets of fruit with cloves, and poinsettias. Cookies and caraway cakes soaked in cider, fruits, nuts, pork dishes, turkey, eggnog, ginger tea, spiced cider, wassail, or lamb's wool (ale, sugar, nutmeg, roasted apples) were eaten. Activities included caroling, wassailing the trees, decorating the Yule tree, exchanging of presents, kissing under the mistletoe, and worshipping Odin, also known as Kris Kringle. Society The social structure on a large scale was identical in all cultures. There were the kings, their retinue, spouses, and children which composed the ruling elite. Peasants were farmers who moonlighted as carpenters, woodsmen, and craftsmen. Between the two there was a small middle class of entertainers and merchants. A smaller segment of the population were in various levels of slavery or members of religious orders - priests and monks. Land dominated most social relationships, which could be described as primitive forms of manorialism and feudalism. When primitive kingships started forming in the late fifth century they eventually spread out. In feudalism, proven members of his war-band were sent out as vassals to the kings, each in charge of several villages. In turn these vassals, primitive and non-hereditary nobles, made flexible contracts with the villages. Each year, in return for a pre-accepted amount of skilled labor, food, and goods, peasants were leased their land. Land would remain in the family. However, the interactions between the king and his retinue were modeled on the rules of Heroic Age, which was comparable in many eras. There was no central law system, so instead a person’s clan ensured their safety. An injury to a person was considered an injury to the clan and demanded reparation. Without it, the clan threatened a feud, which would be disastrous to everyone involved. The down side to the situation was that it did not allow individuals or even couples to move. People were stuck wherever they were born until the day they died unless they were fortunate enough to be accepted into the church, interested a bard, had some other unusual and desirable or useful skill, or could find work in the local warlord’s hall as a servant and/or plaything. Culture Groups *Britons: The British had been the second group of Celtic speakers to invade Britain, arriving some time after the eighth century B.C.E. Known as the P-Celts, they had taken over the island apart from the highlands by the time of the Roman invasion. Romano-Britons, their descendants, occupied the same area. Around 443, the Germanic foederati rebelled against them and took over the southern and western coastal regions. During the fifth century they would steadily lose ground to them. *Germanic: Several Germanic tribes were invited to settle along the western and southern coasts of Britain from the late fourth century by the Romans as foederati. In exchange for food and supplies, they were tasked with guarding the English Channel from raiders, mainly their own kinsmen. After the Romans left permanently, there was a period where Roman respect was transferred to the Romano-Britons but by around 443 they revolted. After that, territories once protected by them came under their control. Without them protecting the coast, their kinsmen began migrating to Britain as well. By 600 they had moved into most of England. They spoke a variety of dialects, each tribe having their own. This has come to be known as Old English. The migrating tribes included the Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Frisians. *Irish: The first Celtic group to invade the British Isles, they were mostly pushed to Ireland with the British invasion. Uniting in the last years of the Roman occupation as a response to the threat from the east, Ireland would enjoy some measure of stability under Niall and those who followed. Because of the political consistency, more aggressive princes generated their own war-bands and raided the British coast. Some of the more successful teulus would eventually settle in several British coastal areas in an attempt to create their own kingdoms. They occupied modern Argyll, Anglesey, Dyfed, and Cornwall. They spoke Q-Celtic. *Pictish: Part of the first Celtic group to invade the British Isles, they managed to maintain control of Britain during the British Invasion. Due to the environment as well as their hardiness, the tribes managed to keep themselves united against Rome as well. However, they’d divided themselves by 400 so that the Highlands were full of internecine warfare and would remain so until the last half of the sixth century. Like the Irish, the Picts spoke a Q-Celtic language. Economics What follows is a very rough equivalence table, subject to changes locally, by year, and various conditions of the local property or economy. A hanging bowl was a thin bronze bowl that was suspended by three or four escutcheons around the rim. PurposeEdit The Celts had a special attachment to water in pools and springs for ritual purposes. It only makes sense that they had portable containers of water for use in religious rituals such as prophecy and sacrifice. Hanging bowls were to be found in every dwelling of symbolic importance - temples, halls, and even early churches and monasteries. Culture In an era where places of learning were looted and no government was stable, all aspects of Briton, Pictish, and Germanic culture suffered. Many of the Roman and Briton intellectual accomplishments were forgotten, passing from common knowledge into the realm of mysticism. The writings of Aristotle, Boethius, Augustine, and Cicero survived, however. Manuscripts were borrowed by any other monastery that had someone curious to read them. In the process these people copied the documents, preserving them against raids or simple bad luck, like fires. Because of the focus on preservation, however, very few new works were generated. Gildas is considered one of the greatest writers of the sixth century but his style was classical, looking backward, instead of British, looking forward. He was not alone. Everywhere any culture that survived did so in Latin. Because of the innate respect for Latin, anything Roman was appreciated on a much deeper level than anything native. For this reason, what we do have of British, Pictish, Irish, and Germanic folklore and mythology is paltry. The physical culture suffered in the same way. During the Roman period, a hybrid of Roman and Briton culture developed. Traditional Celtic symbols and motifs had been joined with Christian and Roman symbols. This perpetuated well beyond the post-Roman period. Thus we have two sets of symbols among the Britons. The Celtic: * Chevron: A simple inverted "V". * Interlace: A loop, braid, or knot made in an intricate geometric pattern. Interlace is the most recognizable Celtic pattern. * Lentoid: A geometrical shape of a three-dimensional body seen through a convex lens on a circle. * Marigold: An imitation of the marigold's flower pattern. * Trellis: A lattice of interwoven or interconnected pieces. * Triskelle: A pattern of three interlocked spirals. * Yin-Yang Scroll: A two-dimensional pattern of a scroll with the yin-yang symbol. The Roman: *Chi-rho: The first two letters of for Christ in Latin. Germanic culture also had their own symbols: Pictish Symbols are placed on marker stones at the boundaries of their kingdoms. These Pictish stones are some of the most famous and visible remnants of the culture. These were carved into rock and later found their way into manuscripts, even copies of the Bible. The most famous example of this is the ‘’Book of Kells’’, though the ’’Lindesfarne Gospels’’ and the ‘’Book of Durrow’’ are also well known. Metalworking was consistent throughout, with several techniques for crafting. * Filigree: Twisted gold or silver wire soldered together or to the surface of an object and arranged artistically. * Granular Work: Gold Beading. * Grille: The setting of enamel into grilles to produce ornamental studs. * Millefiori: A glasswork technique involving the production of glass rods or canes with multicolored patterns. The rod is pulled in a furnace until thin while maintaining the cross-section's design. When the glass is cooled it is cut into beads. * Pressblech: The use of thin foils stamped with a die from the back. The one pure element of Briton and Germanic culture that did revive during this period was oral literature in the form of poets. They would keep and develop new history until well beyond the period when manuscript production was in full production. Technology As with culture and learning, technology also suffered during the post-Roman era. Often development was retarded, but it was not unusual for technology to move backward. This was because of the general attitude toward knowledge. Its pursuit was generally considered witchcraft and could be punished by burning or drowning for their ties to the devil. This was especially true of women who, following the writings of Paul, were supposed to be supportive to men but to never work on anything too intellectual for fear it might make them sterile. They were especially not to have independent minds. Nor was there much chance of revitalizing culture or technology, or generating thinking. Trade remained at the local level, but with the constant worry of bandits, raiders, and pirates it slowed to a trickle. Cornwall alone, because of its tin deposits, was a regular stop during the period. Medicine had been an art and a science taught in Roman schools. In the post-Roman world, it devolved into the use of a random group of potions and herbs learned from trial and error. Superstition and folk medicine were also common. This might be one of the reasons why the life expectancy was so low during the period. Science was seen as a completed study. The works of the Greek scientists were read, copied, and stored in every monastery of Europe, with most of the academic effort devoted to reconciling their works with the Bible’s teachings. Metallurgy took a pause during this era. Using a forge, anvil, hammer, and chisel smiths built armor, swords, and plows as well as more commonplace tools. Because of the amount of money involved, they likely spent most of their time repairing these types of items. Techniques involved included bending the metal, lengthening in a process called drawing, finishing, punching to create decorative patterns, shortening the metal in a process called upsetting, welding, and plasticine. In local use like rivers, lakes, and rarely the Irish Sea coracles known as cwrwgl were in general use. These had a framework of split and interwoven willow rods, tied with willow bark. The outer layer was made of animal skin such as a horse, with a thin layer of tar to make it fully waterproof. The karvi was the smallest Germanic long ship. It had between 6 and 16 benches, holding between 6 and 16 rowers along with a one cox. Its length to width dimensions were 4.5:1. Ships were made with green wood, which bent easier and stayed in shape better. Planks overlapped and the grains were at 90 degrees to the plank. Oak was the preferred timber because it was connected with Odin, though trees of all sorts were used. All longships were built with the bow and stern identical. Sails were always square and made of a rough wool cloth. The karvi was used as a warrior transport. Its mobility allowed it to sidle next to a merchant ship so that the crew could attack, while it was durable enough to cross the English Channel. Merchant Ships, known as corbita, ponto, cladivata or any of a number of other names, were used for trade. In Britain, the tin in Cornwall was one of the most valuable resources throughout the fifth and sixth centuries, but iron and other natural resources were popular as well. These were traded for amphorae, baked clay jars, filled with wine, olive oil, and other items. Merchant Ships had simple designs, beginning with a keel that ran from one end of the ship to the other, ribs that ran from the top of the ship, down to the keel, and back up the other side to form the hull. Planks were used to seal up the sections in between. Each of them was interconnected with the planks above and below them and intersected the next plank. Sails gave the ship speeds up to 4 miles per hour, and a separate one at the bow of the ship allowed for steering. Education There were two basic forms of education in post-Roman Britain, one reserved for those peasants wealthy enough to pay for an apprenticeship, the other reserved for nobility and those male peasant children intelligent enough to attract Christian patronage. Apprenticeship was the more common education. Beginning from a young age, children would be assigned to a craftsman - carpenter, smith, shipbuilder, etc., who would teach their student all the basic techniques. An apprentice would remain with a master until his teacher had deemed him sufficiently knowledgeable to go out on his own. He would then be given the status of journeyman. A journeyman was considered to be a craftsman who had learned all the basics of his trade but needed practical experience in order to attain mastery. Journeymen usually had no business residence of their own. A master was considered a fully educated person in his own craft, capable of taking on an apprentice of his own. Education by the church was more like what our public education resembles. Bright students up to the age of about twelve were taught grammar, logic, and rhetoric - the trivium. They would then be taught the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. This was considered a secondary education. The study of philosophy and theology was the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in the medieval world. Philosophy was the study of the world through music and arithmetic on one hand and cosmology and geometry on the other. Theology was the systematic and rational study of concepts of God and the nature of religious truths. The Warrior The life of a warrior began when he was accepted by the gatekeeper and welcomed into the Briton teulu or Germanic comitat. A warrior's personal accoutrements would vary based on personal wealth, gifts from the king, and items scavenged from the battlefield. He would start with body armor. The leather cuirass protected the chest, and abdomen, and part of the shoulders. Some armor slipped on, while others may have been buckled or tied into place on the body. A mainstay of the Roman army, chain mail represented many hours of tedious ring connections - up to 30,000 rings could be on a suit. The labor involved made each piece expensive. Kings may have afforded them, or the best warriors may have found older pieces on the bodies of their opponents. The craftsmanship involved made them much better protection in battle, so that any man wearing chain mail was likely to appear unkillable. This would have added to the mystique of the kings and best warriors. Spears were the basic weapon of sub-Roman warfare all over the British Isles. They were made of a shaft, preferably oak. The head was formed and attached into a notch with rope. Helmets were the second piece of protection and could be anything put over the head to reduce the trauma of a weapon strike. Simple warriors used leather. The wealthy could afford a metallic piece closely fitted to the head. Either form went down to the base of the skull in back, covered the ears and cheeks while protecting the eyes. The iron version would have been lined with leather. A spatha was a sword first developed among the Germanic tribes and later used by their Roman allies. Because of their cost, only kings and seasoned men generally possessed them. Spatha’s were 71 to 81 cm (28 to 32 in.) in length and roughly 5 cm (2 in.) in width, with a tang of 10 to 13 (4 to 5 in. and tapered at the tip to prevent horsemen from stabbing themselves in the foot. The shield was a warrior's first line of defense in battle. Made of wood, normally with a silver boss at the center which allowed for a handle on the other side. A leather strip over the front would have cushioned blows. The wealthy and the fortunate scavengers might have an iron-plated version. Shields were not uniformly shaped or designed. Scramasax, or Seax, was a Germanic bladed weapon. Swords were more common among the Germanic peoples than with the Celts, however they would have been expensive and therefore not an automatic part of every warrior’s accoutrements. In the seventh century blades would get as long as 50 cm, or 20 inches, but in Arthur’s time they may have been more like 30 cm or 12 inches. Possessing a single-edged blade, they were made with a tang that connected them to an organic hilt (horn or wood), and were worn blade side up. Army Size A comitat was the name of the Germanic war—band. ‘’''The Law of Ine''‘’ stated that an army could consist of only eight men, while the armies of some of the more powerful kings might have been as many as one hundred up through the sixth century. It would have been composed of friends and comrades, people who had a personal bond with the king because of the land, weapons, beer, and entertainment he provided in the hall. The teulu was the name of a British war-band. A British chieftain of the late fifth century could have had as few as five men, while it would not have been uncommon for a major king of the early seventh century to have one hundred. As kingdoms grew and became fewer their unben, or sub-kings, would have supported their own teulus, thus increasing the effective military force of their king.